Atmos Energy Corporation (NYSE:ATO) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Atmos Energy Corporation (NYSE:ATO) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the thirteen brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $189.0909.

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Atmos Energy from $192.00 to $184.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 29th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Atmos Energy from $193.00 to $196.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Atmos Energy from $182.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Atmos Energy from $187.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Atmos Energy from $184.00 to $183.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Atmos Energy news, Director William James Ware purchased 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were bought at an average price of $167.59 per share, for a total transaction of $50,277.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $81,783.92. This trade represents a 159.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.43% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Atmos Energy

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. acquired a new position in shares of Atmos Energy during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,582,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Atmos Energy by 30.9% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 486,229 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $81,507,000 after purchasing an additional 114,836 shares in the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in Atmos Energy during the first quarter worth $2,558,000. Opal Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Atmos Energy in the first quarter valued at $6,154,000. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG lifted its stake in shares of Atmos Energy by 26.2% in the fourth quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG now owns 25,985 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,359,000 after buying an additional 5,400 shares in the last quarter. 90.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Atmos Energy Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of ATO opened at $169.30 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $173.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $178.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.73. Atmos Energy has a one year low of $160.10 and a one year high of $192.51. The company has a market cap of $28.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.60.

Atmos Energy (NYSE:ATO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The utilities provider reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 by $0.08. Atmos Energy had a return on equity of 9.67% and a net margin of 28.50%.The firm had revenue of $879.06 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $900.82 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.16 EPS. Atmos Energy has set its FY 2026 guidance at 8.400-8.500 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Atmos Energy will post 8.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Atmos Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 24th will be paid a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 24th. Atmos Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.56%.

Atmos Energy Company Profile

Atmos Energy Corporation (NYSE: ATO) is a U.S.-based natural-gas utility that primarily focuses on the regulated distribution of natural gas. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the company operates through local distribution systems to deliver natural gas to residential, commercial, industrial and electric generation customers. Atmos’s core activities include pipeline operations, gas distribution, system maintenance and reliability programs designed to ensure safe and continuous service to its customers.

The company’s services encompass gas delivery, system integrity and maintenance, storage and transmission connections, and customer-facing programs such as billing, conservation initiatives and energy-efficiency offerings.